Styrene, also known, as vinyl benzene, is an aromatic compound that can be produced in industrial quantities. The most common method of styrene production comprises the dehydrogenation of EB, which produces a product stream that includes styrene, EB and PEBs. It is desirable to reduce the amount of EB and PEBs in the polystyrene product.
Polystyrene is an aromatic polymer produced from the styrene monomer. Polystyrene is a widely used polymer found in insulation, packaging, disposable cutlery, and in foamed application such as for drinking cups. During the production of polystyrene, impurities including EB can enter with the fresh styrene feed or from a recycle stream. The EB can exit the process as a purge stream, or in the composition of the polystyrene product. It can be desirable to reduce the amount of EB in the polystyrene product.
Separation of EB from the crude styrene product or in the purge stream of a polystyrene process can be difficult due to the similar boiling points of EB and styrene. The use multiple distillation columns is the typical means of component separation.
The alkylation of benzene to produce ethylbenzene is a common commercial reaction included in the production of styrene. The separation of the products of such a reaction is typically accomplished by a series of distillation steps. Likewise the separation of product streams such as BTX, a mixture of benzene, toluene and xylene, is also typically accomplished by a series of distillation steps.
The use of process schemes incorporating multiple distillation columns can be costly and inefficient. Thus, it would be desirable accomplish component separation utilizing a reduced number of distillation columns by a method that is more economically viable.